This is where the minuscule, niche group of users who make up less than.5% of all your customers will go when their current contracts expire or when they just get fed up with all of the great options on everyone else's phones other than yours.

FTFY. Seriously, most users don't know what a bootloader is let alone whether or not it's locked or unlocked.

He may not be, I've run into some Android users who are decidedly not tech savvy who have rooted their HTC devices and they tell their friends building a wave of support for rooting phones. This is almost exclusively for HTC Android phones and most frequently I field questions about how to do it and can I "fix" their phones since I'm the tech savvy guy in the office. Typically the rooted phones are faster, more stable, and have more features, some of which can be killer.

That said I think HTC is doing this in large part because they HAVE seen people run from Motorola's locked down phones at the rapid rate (and this is backed up by motorola starting to make noise about unlocking theirs too). Not to mention if HTC can partner with the community they can use that work as a resource for releasing stronger offerings for their phones that will really put them ahead of the competition.

And how much harder is/was it to root? From what I seen it is significantly more complex but as I don't own a Moto phone it's hard to say with real experience. My HTC is trivial since I've unlocked the bootloader.

I know several non-technical users who've rooted their phones to get better versions of Android that what was offered. Normal every day people have been rooting their iPhones forever now, its hardly news that people want more power out of their devices.

Googling for phone jailbreaks puts the figures (taken from monitorig websites) at around 5% in 2008 and 8% in 2009. I saw guesses for 2011 or around 10-15%.The company that supplies phones to our work actually offers to jailbreak iPhones for us if necessary.

Now, Android devices have a lot less need of jailbreaking of course, but their users are generally more technically aware, so I don't think it's a stretch at all to assume that easily more than 1 of Android devices are being cracked. I've rooted 3 out of 4 of my Android devices, and may do my Xoom if a nice custom ROM comes out for it (probably already are some available).

And there are thousands upon thousands up people who modify their phones.

Out of millions upon millions of phones sold. Again, less than 1 percent. But, originally, less than 1 percent of people had cell phones. Then less than 1 percent had data capable phones. Now, less than 1 percent of people install custom firmware. Don't get discouraged by the numbers. We're just leading the curve.

This is where the minuscule, niche group of users who make up less than.5% of all your customers will go when their current contracts expire or when they just get fed up with all of the great options on everyone else's phones other than yours.

And don't you think those people are considerably more valuable to Motorola than someone who can't tell an Android phone from an iPhone? Of course they are.

Additionally, the geeks are the only ones with any brand loyalty, so it pays not to piss them off. I'll happily stick with Motorola when my Droid dies, assuming they haven't pissed my off. My gf, on the other hand, doesn't even know which company built her EVO.

Really? Check out the XDA Developer's Forum for the Milestone [xda-developers.com] - this is only one Moto phone and there are over 28.5K posts in this forum. Even if that IS only 0.5% of their installed base outside of the USA (because the original Droid has an unlocked bootloader in the US, but was called the Milestone and locked tight everywhere else) that's still not a small amount of interest in non-standard ROMs.

If Motorola wants to keep everything locked down like an iphone they're of course welcome to do so. I really think that they'd do well to just offer an option to unlock the bootloader to whatever percentage of their userbase asks for it, along with voiding their warranty of course. It's not going to hurt anything if they do and they'll only reap goodwill and more fans because of it. We may be a minority but we're a vocal minority, and currently we'll all buy a non-moto phone when it comes time for our next purchase.

It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to push customers away, but then again I'm not a huge hardware company so there are probably many more factors involved in the decision. I'm only speaking as a disgruntled customer who will do my best to prevent anyone I know from getting a Motorola product from here on in. It's a safe bet that I'm not alone.

What is sad is that Motorola has some cool hardware. Take the Atrix for example. If the bootloader wasn't locked, I could imagine using it as a reasonable netbook replacement. It could dump backups to an encrypted filesystem if using Amazon or Dropbox, or via ssh to a private machine at home. Obviously, it would have the functionality of a low end netbook at best, but on the road, that is what is needed, and if the laptop "adapter" is made standard so future products work with it, the $500 or so for tha

Honestly it is still a vocal minority (though a large minority). However -- what HTC may have recognized here is that they are the early adopters and influencers of the greater market in general. Who do the people who don't know what a bootloader is ask when they are looking for a new phone? The vocal minority of techie types who like to root, ROM, and customize.

Besides, have you not ever used one of Motorola's phones? I got the Atrix and it is *broken* as it ships. Nothing works. My Nexus one? It has its faults, but it works.

I would kill to boot Motorola's crap on the Atrix. Others (even people with no technical skills) can appreciate what it is like to use a phone that *works* verses using a phone that has been purposely (even if not intentionality) broken.

The people in Motorola made a few lousy decisions on the smartphones they make, so I, one of that minority, convinced a healthy number of people not to buy their products. We may be few, but all of our friends listen to our tech advice and act accordingly.:)

As a victim of the Motorola "CLIQ with MOTOBLUR", I agree completely. I have no hesitation if the situation arises to pass on the impression Motorola Mobile corporation gave me of their attitude towards their "customers".

This announcement from HTC makes me even happier now with the HTC "3g Slide" I upgraded to in order to escape the "CLIQ with MOTOBLUR", since I'm very happily running CyanogenMod 7 on it in place of their stock ROM.

When it comes to gadgets like this it is mostly word of mouth that spreads its success. Right now most people identify with either Apple or Android. If the choose Apple, well that's about it, but if they choose Android you have many sub-selections to go through. People who are curious will ask the tech they know at work or family member and they usually will offer the most rounded option they don't have to babysit. By HTC allowing custom ROMs the consumer is able to get the best of both worlds as well H

Users don't need to know what a bootloader is in order to care about this. They'll want to know that they can install the latest version of the OS on it, because there is that one cool feature they are interested in. And they'll hear stuff like "oh you can't upgrade a Motorola".

The desire to run the latest and coolest stuff is widespread, even among users who are not particularly technical. For proof just look at the way even trivial Trojans are spreading.

They do the very first time they get referred to something like CyanogenMod [cyanogenmod.com] (which happens) and can't get it onto their phones following the directions.

Random Windows users download and install all sorts of crap onto their computers without any sort of training whatsoever. What makes you think they don't complain when they're suddenly stopped from doing so (Windows Vista's UAC)?

People have a basic concept in their minds that they should be able to do things with their devices, and when they can't, they can

Motorola mentioned something today about considering unlocking their bootloaders as well. I hope they do, because it would be a nice change from the previous statement they made last year telling modders to go elsewhere.

If they SERIOUSLY commit to disowning their current "We're just for consumers, not developers" and "We'll just keep doing what's working for US" policies, I might actually consider a Motorola product again someday. It'd take more than some vaguely appeasing mumblings from their PR departments to convince me, though.

I'd recommend against it. I am trying to think of someone I know who currently has an HTC phone and has said they would buy one again... I can think of 6 people (myself included) I know who have vehemently said they would not get another. Both my wife's and my touch screens malfunctioned after about a year. Mine happened just in the warranty, my wife's happened just out (she now has a Samsung). My friend had to replace his battery after 13 months. Another just replaced his screen after a little over a year.

Back in 2009 I had my N900, which was never locked down in the slightest.

I could never find a U.S. carrier that carried the N900. I walked into a T-Mobile store and they said "sorry". And with AT&T buying T-Mobile USA, it appears the "Even More Plus" plan that gives a discount on the plan for bringing your own phone is likely to disappear.

Perhaps you should have got the hint that the U.S. carriers did not want you to have an N900 (or probably any unlocked device) and would not subsidise one for you. If you cared you would have just bought one "sim-free".

And of course there is nothing to suggest the post you replied to came from anyone in the U.S. Multiple carriers here in Ireland had the N900 for example and I think it was available from carriers in plenty of European countries. Of course it was hillariously priced on pay-as-you-go, I

If that is your only concern then obviously you didn't really care about buying an truly unlocked phone.

But as others have mentioned here there are "features" which "carriers" want you to pay for that are enforced by locking the device and those may have been worth enough to you to cover the cost of the handset bundled into a contract price.

Finally, there are (or have been) carriers that would offer cheaper deals to those not including the purchase price of the device in their monthly charges and you may ha

I don't know which country you're in but in Europe you would simply opt for a "sim only" contract. I'm in France (not the most competitive country for mobile rates) and use this: http://www.virginmobile.fr/nos-offres/forfaits-liberty-sim-et-plus.htm [virginmobile.fr] (EUR 29.90/month for 5 hours call time any network any time, unlimited sms and 500MB of internet usage per month with no minimum contract period).

I don't know which country you're in but in Europe you would simply opt for a "sim only" contract.

In the United States, AT&T charges as much for SIM-only service as it does for a contract that includes a phone. And once it completes its acquisition of T-Mobile USA, AT&T will become the only nationwide GSM carrier.

Or better yet, "This is the software we supplied with yoru phone. The bootloader is unlocked. Seek future updates from the community".

After all, it seems HTC has a trillion phones (really a few phones in many combinations), so surely supporting every one of them wll be a pain. Perhaps this is how they'll get out of the 18-month support thing Google is trying to impose on Android vendors. After all, once the phone is sold, HTC makes no money, so if they can just fixate on making new phones and stuff, it save

This makes me wonder if they'll go "oh, we unlocked the bootloaders but the carriers relocked them. Sorry."

Or worse: " we see you have violated your terms of service. You will be pleased to know your account as been terminated and here is your early termination fee. Oh, and you can not return as a customer for 1 year." "Thanks for choosing xyz carrier" ( sort of what comcast is doing with bandwidth violators )

I'm amazed by the displeasure displayed on their FaceBook page and in other places. I was actually surprised by the number of people commenting. I've always wondered what the benefit to the hardware vendors is that would make them go to the work of locking bootloaders, or even taking away the 'check this box for root access' that Android phones should really have.

I'm amazed by the displeasure displayed on their FaceBook page and in other places. I was actually surprised by the number of people commenting. I've always wondered what the benefit to the hardware vendors is that would make them go to the work of locking bootloaders, or even taking away the 'check this box for root access' that Android phones should really have.

There's little benefit to manufacturers who don't also own an app store, like Apple.

However, the carriers apply pressure in order to prevent customers from doing things like wifi tethering without paying the carriers for the service. You can easily do this on Android phones, but it requires root.

1: Lusers who mod their phones, "brick" [1] them, then return it. Locking bootloaders means that they don't get returns or support calls on these types.

2: It cozies hardware makers with the DRM culprits who want digital restrictions in every device out there.

3: It makes cellular carriers happy in four ways:

A: If a security hole in Android comes out, and a phone can't be patches, people are likely to upgrade or buy a new phone.

B: Phones won't run the latest apps, due to the inability to be upgraded to the latest Android rev, so consumers will trash the devices for a new one.

C: Carriers can lock out features, add non-removable "branding", etc.

D: Carriers can create their own locked-down app/music stores.

[1]: A lot of people don't understand that for some phones, it takes some effort to truly brick them (as in make them impossible to reflash and get working.) For example, people with iPhones who claim their phone is bricked, but never have bothered to do a DFU restore, people with Motorola devices who have never bothered downloading RSD Lite and flashing a factory.SHX back, or people with HTC phones who can't be bothered with copying a ROM to the SD card and holding down a button when turning the phone on.

As much as I hate locked phones, I agree these are valid points. I will add a few of mine.

1. Several enthusiasts, like myself will never buy a phone with locked bootloader. This group may be in minority but appears to have a very loud voice. Also, I buy phones for all of my family members and make recommendations to friends and relatives.2. To the best of my knowledge some Android vendors have never locked their bootloaders. For example, Samsung. My Samsung Epic 4G is one of these phones. These manu

You are not the only one. The Android devices I bought were ones which were the easiest to root/customize at the time. For example, the HTC Inspire 4G was remarkably easy to S/OFF, slap ClockworkMod Recovery, and drop a ROM onto.

I also tell people and try to explain to them why a locked bootloader is bad. It does influence purchasing decisions, especially if someone does want to dip their toe with a custom firmware, or just be able to back up the phone's image completely using nandroid.

A: If a security hole in Android comes out, and a phone can't be patches, people are likely to upgrade or buy a new phone.

Nah, that's not what makes people upgrade. They will upgrade for new features they are denied by the mfgr/carrier's holding back the update. Besides, security conscious individuals are a vanishingly small minority (probably about the same as those who "root" their phones).

If you would like to argue otherwise, ask yourself which is better W7 or XP? Please explain why new hardware comes with new OSs, while much of the corporate world are sticking with the entr

1: Lusers who mod their phones, "brick" [1] them, then return it. Locking bootloaders means that they don't get returns or support calls on these types.

As opposed to the people who will attempt to mod their phones with the complicated routes people create to get around the locked bootloaders? It's inevitable that someone will find a way around it and it'll be complex enough to cause people who might not have otherwise "bricked" their phone to screw up.

3: It makes cellular carriers happy in four ways:

Looking at all your reasons it seems you have confused rooting with the advantages of unlocking the bootloader. A phone with a locked bootloader can still be rooted and thus all those features the carrier

Your first point, definitely. It does make returns and support calls come in. However, it does keep Joe Sixpack from flashing a new ROM, then returning the device because the ROM had faulty BT support.

The second point is different. I have encountered phones that even if you get full root on them and attempt to pull the crapware off, as soon as they are rebooted, they either reload their filesystems, or go into a bootloop until you reflash the stock ROM.

Of course, this is an article on smartphones, which makes your post kind of amusing. PagePlus Cellular has no real data plans (their best plan only provides 100 MB of data per month; you can go through that in about 45 minutes of YouTube viewing if you don't notice that your Wi-Fi link went down). Then what? They don't offer the ability to buy extra data traffic, so as far as I can tell, your only choice is to buy a second month for another $30, chock full of minutes that you're never going to use.

Lusers are not people who brick phones. Bricking stuff is part of the way of being a good modder.

Lusers are people who brick them, then try to RMA the phone as bad, or flash a ROM that might not be up to snuff in some feature, and then return the phone as opposed to going back to stock, or clicking on ROM Manager and finding another one that may be more stable.

For embracing what Android is supposed to be about. When Motorola and Samsung decided to lock down their devices tighter than the iPhone, it boggled my mind why any freedom-loving geek would opt for such devices (unless they were looking for challenge).

Kudos to HTC for their consumer friendliness... sad to think that 10-15 years ago Motorola would provide open schematics for their kit on request, and now they're leading the charge for the Big Brother lockdown.

I suspect (though I wouldn't bet money on it) that you really mean what you wish Android was supposed to be about.

Android is not targeted at "freedom-loving geeks"; it is targeted at consumers who want a powerful smartphone with lots of apps. It distinguishes itself from the iPhone not so much by being "open" (although there is a subset of users for whom that's a concern), but by being cross-vendor, so you're not tied to a single provider, and by being associated with the very popular "Google" brand. Open

They spent a lot of effort locking down the Thunderbolt and people rooted the crap out of it. Well at some point it gets not worth it. You spend a bunch of money and effort trying to lock shit down only to have it fairly easily broken and then what? Just save the cash and don't bother.

The HTC Incredible was a real contender, and the Droid X stole its thunder. I know, because I switched. The Incredible had one of the loudest speakers I'd ever heard (music) and I prefer soft buttons, not the plastic junk on Droid X. But, I had 2 speakers actually blow. For free, I was able to switch to the Droid X with its larger screen. But the Incredible was a joy to hold and use.

HTC sees an opening here to jump ahead of the competition. HTC has no real stake in caring about Cyanogen root users. The phone companies do, because of not being able to charge for tethering and other locked down features not available to non-root users.

But it doesn't matter to HTC. They sell the hardware and design, and if you get the geeks raging about something that costs you nothing, it may give you an edge.

I have no phone loyalty yet. Most don't. If HTC stays open, I will most likely switch to them when I upgrade in about 3 more generations. They're all android, and all settings and apps import, so Android phones can't vendor lock very well.

Just because you have a customer now, Moto, doesn't mean anything come renewal time and $100 rebates on new phones.

I'm not having loyalty yet, but I certainly avoid anything by Motorola, LG and Nokia: I've had phones for all free, and all had issues with hardware and software compounded by horrendous service. Sine my HTC HD2 is the first phone in 10 yrs I'm happy with, I'm really trying to stick with them. Hopefully they unlock the Sensation soon, otherwise I'll give Samsung's Galaxy S 2 a try.

Will entire runs of specific HTC model phones have unlocked bootloaders or just a subset? Will this subset have a warranty? Does this decision in any way affect people with older HTC phones who had to void their warranty in order to unlock the bootloader?

Yeah. I've been getting irritated about this myself. All of the new phones are dinner plates. And it's actually getting worse. It seems like 4.0" is the new minimum screen size, barring the iPhone.

Apparently "the public" wants bigger screens, and market pressures being what they are, that means smaller phones get the shaft. I'd be fine with a 3.7"... but everything good is 4.3" or larger these days. The 3.2" of the Eris feels a little cramped, to me, but these new phones are just taking things way too far.

Cricket has something called a Huawei Ascend, which looks to be the smallest Android phone on the market. I was still using my Razr until about a week ago, and I really can't stand that there is absolutely nothing available, smartphone or not (except maybe that Huawei), that isn't significantly larger or clumsier than the Razr.

After seeing what CM7 was able to do for my HD2 and an x10, i'm not buying locked phones ever. My HD2 is ripe for an upgrade, and I've been fairly happy with it (which I can't say of my previous Motorola and Nokia, both were riddled with design issues and software bugs). I'd like to reward HTC by sticking with them, but not at the cost of a locked bootloader, especially since it seems Sense is not that good.

I pay Verizon almost 260 bucks every month (5 phones all unlimited texting, 3 with unlimited data plans). If they ever kick me off their network for using my rooted Moto Droid, it would suck, but I would survive and find something else to do with that 3000+ a year, I'm sure. It's my most expensive utility, except for summer electric bills in Arizona.

Did you not already have sufficient reason to avoid Verizon? They're so-called 3G network is unable to handle voice and data simultaneously. They lock down all of their phones and install their own operating system. You can't use their phones on any other network in the US or internationally unless you bought a "world" version, and their service costs more than even AT&T.

The real reason I still have (and will stay with) VZ is because the other Telco's actual cell coverage SUCKS donkey balls. The other features you mention are more of a hassle than deal breaker. Not being able to have reliable phone calls is a deal breaker for any cell phone I have.

What good is making 3G calls and data at the same time, if you don't have a cell in range?

What is your basis for this? I've used AT&T with an iPhone for 4 years, and I travel constantly. In Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo New York, Indianapolis, New York City, upstate New York, Houston, Atlanta, the Smoky Mountains, Charleston South Carolina, Mexico City, San Francisco, San Jose CA, the middle of the mountains of Northern California, Reno Nevada, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and while driving in between, I've NEVER had a problem with coverage. Except at home, where I have radio interference from